


In Grey Eyes

by SailorHaumea



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Abandoned Work - Unfinished and Discontinued, Airbender Ty Lee (Avatar), Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Avatar Ty Lee, Gen, Not Beta Read, Original Character Death(s)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-10
Updated: 2020-02-10
Packaged: 2021-02-27 22:54:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 1,097
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22643689
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SailorHaumea/pseuds/SailorHaumea
Summary: Everyone thought that the Avatar cycle came to an end with the death of the last Fire Avatar. After all, the Air Nomads were all dead. Right?So when Ty Lee, friend of Princess Azula of the Fire Nation, accidentally uses airbending during an argument with the princess, Prince Iroh thinks something is very, very wrong.Or: An Avatar!Ty Lee AU.DISCONTINUED AS OF 02/28/2020
Kudos: 24





	1. The Argument

**Author's Note:**

> "What if Aang died and the Avatar Cycle continued?" has been done a thousand times using various premises. There's been Avatar Katara, Avatar Zuko, Avatar Azula, Avatar Toph, Avatar Sokka, and even Avatar Mai fics. A fair number of these fics are really good - there's the unfortunately incomplete "Damascus" about an Avatar Toph.
> 
> But I realized something: no one's done an Avatar Ty Lee AU before!
> 
> So, I made a thing.

Ty Lee is ten years old when she first uses airbending, and when she is discovered to be the Avatar.

Azula took one of her toys.

"Give it back!" Ty Lee shouts.

Azula refuses.

And then Ty Lee swings her arm, and produces a gust of wind.

Azula's jaw drops.

So does Mai's.

And Ty Lee herself just stands there in shock.

"Ty Lee," Azula begins, "why didn't you tell me you were an airbender?"

Ty Lee recoils in horror. "I-I didn't know..."

The guards arrive within minutes.

"What are you doing? LET ME GO!"

And then Ty Lee's eyes start glowing, and everything goes black for the guards, Azula, and Mai. Then it's over, and her eyes return to normal, and she collapses.

Prince Iroh happens to be nearby, and does the first thing he can think of: he grabs Ty Lee and runs as far from the Palace as he can.

The Fire Nation Royal Palace isn't safe for the Avatar. Especially not one whose primary element is apparently airbending.


	2. Air (1): The Cave

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Iroh and Ty Lee begin their life on the run, and plans are made for Ty Lee to start learning airbending.

Ty Lee awakens in a cave. The sound of a rainstorm fills her ears.

"Huh?" is the first thing she says as she wakes up.

"Miss Ty Lee, this is going to be a lot to digest," a familiar voice says.

As she sits up, she realizes that she's not alone in the cave.

Wait, why is Iroh, the legendary Dragon of the West, in the cave with her?

"General Iroh? What's going on? Why are we in a cave?"

The old man lets out a deep breath. "It appears that you are the Avatar, my child."

The girl stares at him in disbelief. "What?"

"You were arguing with my niece, and you used airbending at one point, and it seems that once your anger reached a fever pitch, you entered the Avatar State."

The ten-year-old isn't sure how to process this. "But how did we wind up in this cave?"

Iroh sighs. "The Fire Nation Royal Palace is one of the last places the Avatar should be right now. The Fire Lord would have done horrible things to you if you had stayed. I took you away from there to keep you safe."

"Why would the Fire Lord hurt me?"

"Because my brother sees you as an obstacle to his plans. You could end the war, if you were fully trained and had mastered all four elements."

Ty Lee frowns. "But...how can I possibly master airbending? All of the Air Nomads are gone. There's no one to teach me."

The Dragon of the West strokes his beard, thinking. "That is certainly a problem. I believe that we will have to travel to the four Air Temples in order for you to learn from some of the scrolls housed there."

"So we're going to travel the world? How are we supposed to get out of the Fire Nation without being captured?"

"I have some friends who might be able to get us safe passage out of the islands. Leave that to me."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, as you can already tell, this is gonna be very different from canon, considering that there are no living Air Nomads. I'll probably still have Sokka, Katara, and Toph make appearances, but the circumstances won't be the same. For the record, this story starts in 96 AG, so a year before Zuko would have been banished.


	3. Air (2): Memories of a Past Life

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ty Lee dreams, and experiences the final moments of her predecessor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: This chapter depicts the death of a character who in the real world would be considered a minor. The death isn't especially graphic, but still.

That night, Ty Lee dreamed.

She was in a forest.

Without warning, a ring of fire surrounded her, and a group of Imperial Firebenders jumped out of the shadows to trap her on all sides. They were led by an aged man in royal armor who had a long grey beard.

Ty Lee recognized the man as the previous Fire Lord, Azulon, who had passed away last year.

"Avatar Kohaku," Azulon smirked, "I've been looking forward to this for several years."

Ty Lee's mouth moved of its own accord. "So you've come here to kill me?"

Ty Lee realized that this was a memory. She was reliving the last moments of her predecessor.

"You should have lent us your aid," the Fire Lord said. "We could have spread our wealth with the world together."

Kohaku/Ty Lee snorted. "When I was younger, I would have believed that. But I've seen the destruction our nation has wrought. I've seen the Earth Kingdom villages that you've reduced to ashes. I've seen the once great Southern Water Tribe as it is now - a bunch of scattered fishing villages, with not a single waterbender to be found. We're not spreading our wealth. We're spreading death."

Azulon scowled. "Those villages chose to reject our guidance. They were given the opportunity to join the Fire Nation, and they resisted."

"So you burned them to the ground. You're murderers. You've dishonored our nation. You've ensured that for generations, people will think of the Fire Nation and associate it with death."

The Fire Lord laughed. "You're so naive. You're barely an adult. It's really a shame you have to die, Avatar."

And then Fire Lord Azulon and the Imperial Firebenders shot out blasts of fire. Kohaku/Ty Lee put up a fire wall of her own, and the battle began.

The fight was short. Kohaku had only mastered firebending and earthbending.

When Fire Lord Azulon delivered the killing blow, the last thing Avatar Kohaku heard was her own screams.

And then Ty Lee awoke, screaming and shaking and shuddering and crying.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ty Lee is quickly becoming aware that the Fire Nation is on the wrong path. For the record, Avatar Kohaku is an OC. In this AU, she was born on the nineteenth day of the tenth month of 68 AG and died on the fifteenth day of the fifth month of 86 AG, so she was only seventeen when she died.


	4. Air (3): Awakening from the Nightmare

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Iroh and Ty Lee discuss Ty Lee's nightmare.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After going back and fortb on whether to use present or past tense, I've settled on using past tense except in certain scenes that work better in present tense.

"Ty Lee, are you all right?" Iroh asked when Ty Lee awakened.

"I just had a nightmare, General Iroh, that's all," the girl reassured him.

"Please, I'm retired. Just call me Iroh." With that, he sat back down in front of the young Avatar, sitting crosslegged. "Would you like to talk about the nightmare?"

Ty Lee looked at him and then nodded. "Okay. I think I was dreaming about the last Avatar's death."

Iroh frowned. "That would explain why you woke up screaming."

"Iroh...how old was Avatar Kohaku when she died?" Ty Lee questioned, a look of horror in her eyes.

Iroh let out a deep sigh. "She was seventeen years old."

Ty Lee looked as if she was about to cry. "But...then, she was barely an adult!"

Iroh nodded. "Fire Lord Jinbu and Avatar Shimizu slew each other in battle, and the succeeding generations of Fire Lord have borne a grudge against the Avatar since then. Fire Lord Azulon expected that with Avatar Kohaku's death, the Avatar Cycle would be broken. No one thought it possible that any Air Nomads had survived."

Ty Lee blinked. "But I never saw anything indicating that my family were Air Nomads."

Iroh stroked his beard thoughtfully. "Perhaps there were Air Nomads far back in your family tree, and it was only with you that airbending reappeared in the family line. Now, you should try to get some more rest."

Ty Lee laid back down and tried to return to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've inserted two additional generations between Sozin and Azulon. This is arguably the actual POD for this AU - Sozin had sons earlier than 0 AG unlike in canon, so Azulon shifts from being Sozin's eldest son to being his great-grandson. One of the two OC Fire Lords is mentioned here, as is the Avatar following Aang - Shimizu, whose name means "clear water" in Japanese. She was from the Southern Water Tribe.
> 
> EDIT 2/14/2020: One of the two Fire Lord OCs has been removed, and the other renamed from "Atsumaru" to Jinbu (進步), a more appropriate name as it's the Chinese word for progress, fitting the naming theme started with Sozin.


End file.
